Life's a beach
by a twinkle in the night sky
Summary: A day out at the beach, hanging with the card captor's and their friends. Romance is in the air for s+s, e+t and a few other characters. A great story, that's a lot of fun. please r+r


LIFES A BEACH  
  
"Hey wait up guys!" Sakura yelled over the laughter and talking of her fellow classmates as she hurriedly jumped out of jeep. Her shoulder length light brown hair swayed gently in the cool ocean breeze and her emerald eyes shimmered enthusiastically in the hot Japanese sun.  
  
"Well, hurry up Sakura. Your going to make us miss the beach volleyball competition!" Chelsea replied, slipping her fluoro orange sunglasses over her eyes and pulling her beach bag over her shoulder.  
  
"Okay, fine. Just let me grab my beach towel and I'll meet you guys up there," Sakura answered, rummaging through the boot of the vehicle.  
  
"Alright, see you there."  
  
"Hmmmm...geez, when did I become so, I don't know, slow?" She laughed silently to herself, "What kind of a question is that. I've always been like this! Late for everything, I bet I couldn't be on time to save my life!"  
  
"Hey, need a hand?"  
  
Sakura looked up.  
  
Li.  
  
"I thought you went with the others?" Sakura looked at him questioningly.  
  
"No way. There is no way I'm going to leave my little angel to struggle behind with all this stuff," Li answered, eyeing her large beach bag and giving her his best smile.  
  
She blushed and looked away. Angel She thought to herself. His words had an amazing effect on her, and it never failed to interest her why. She stood up and returned his smile lovingly.  
  
She may have only been 17, but she was love. She knew it.  
  
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him lovingly. He reluctantly pulled out of the kiss, much to her disappointment. She smiled again when he pecked her on the check and gave her a hug.  
  
"We'd better catch up with the others. They might be wondering where we are," he gave her a mischievious grin, "you know, we could be getting into mischief."  
  
She cocked her eyebrow then accepted defeat and turned away laughing.  
  
When she had became the Clow Misteress, she had no idea what she was to do next. What to expect. However, her biggest fear wasn't that, it was letting go. Not of the adventure or the magic that came with each capture, but of a certain someone. Li. She wasn't sure of him when he first came to their elementary school. In fact, you could kind of say that he was kinda strange to her.  
  
Yet, at the same time he brought excitement and guidance to her missions. He was always there, helping and explaining things to her, he must have thought she was a nusince and annoying. However, as time went on, their feelings for each other grew and the acceptance of each other in the others life became more apparent and needing.  
  
Then when he was called back to Hong Kong, she and Li finally let their feelings for each other out and addmitted how much they really meant to one another. And it was because of that love, that feeling, that he returned to her 3 years later. He made a promise, and he kept it.  
  
To her, Li was the angel. He was every bit of guidance and support she needed to face each day. He, was love.  
  
"Hey, Sleeping Beauty. Wake up!"  
  
"Huh?" Sakura awoke from her little day dream.  
  
"Sakura, are you alright?" Li asked with a worried tone in his voice.  
  
Sakura smiled at him, looking deep into his ambered coloured eyes and brushed his dark brown bangs from them.  
  
"I'm fine. I was just thinking about us and how much you mean to me," she gave him her sweetest smile.  
  
Li's worried expression disappeared, and was replaced by one of admiration and care.  
  
"I mean. I don't know where I'd be without you. Every little thing you've done for me has made me who I am right now. I just love you so much," and with that, she moved herself closer to him and gave him another deep kiss. This time Li didn't pull away. Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck while Li placed his around her slim waist. They enjoyed this intimate moment for only a brief second before they heard Zachary calling them.  
  
"Hey Saku...." he hesitated when he saw them both joined in a passionate kiss. But he decided that they weren't gonna miss out on one little kiss. They could always finish that later.  
  
"Hey Sakura, Li!" he called out.  
  
They immediately pulled away from each other and turned to face the sun burnt teenager. They couldn't help but laugh as he stood there on top of the sand dune, with his entire body burnt to perfection. They had only been there for 40 minutes and already the hot August sun had taken its toll on Zachary.  
  
And to add to this, he was wearing bright blue and purple shorts, with light green thongs.  
  
It sure was a sight!!!  
  
Zachary noticed their laughter and gave them a confused look.  
  
"What is it?" he asked.  
  
He followed their gaze down his body and couldn't help but laugh himself.  
  
"I do look a bit dumb, don't I?"  
  
The couple nodded with wide smiles.  
  
"Yeah, so, what's up, man?" Li asked and came up behind Sakura and replaced his hands around her waist.  
  
Sakura stopped laughing and was startled at first by his sudden movements, but then got over the shock and placed her hands arounds his on her stomach.  
  
Li smiled down at her.  
  
"The competition has started. Rita's wondering where you are, So hurry up." And with that he disappeared back down behind the sand dune.  
  
Rita had been so excited this last week. 3 weeks ago she found out that she was to participate in the national beach volleyball competion. She was running around telling everyone, and inviting them to come and watch.  
  
So here they were, ready to scream, yell, whistle and barrack, and at the same time enjoy the sun and the surf.  
  
"Come on, Sakura. Let's head to the comp," Li's voice broke through her little daydream.  
  
"Sure Li. Oh no. I forgot my.....hey," screamed Sakura as Li swept her into his arms.  
  
"I said, let's head to the comp, now!" He looked at her seriously, but all Sakura could do was look at him and giggle.  
  
"What's so funny?"  
  
"Oh, nothing....much. It's just that you've never been in a hurry to be anywhere near Zachary," Sakura said still laughing.  
  
Li sweatdropped. Zachary had offically announced to everyone, including Rita, that he was to become her coach. Rita objected to this, saying she already had a coach, but Zachary insisted greatly, so Rita had to give in.  
  
From then on he had been acting like the king of the mountain, cocky and full of unearned pride.  
  
Li had been threatening to knock the sense out of him if he didn't shut up, even if he been his first true friend in Japan. But everytime he got near him, Sakura, who didn't really like fights just pulled him by the arm, away from Zachary, into a quiet corner, and, well lets just say kept him distracted while Zachary got away.  
  
Li continued to look at Sakura, who had finally finished laughing and was trying to grab her towel from her bag, while at the same time being in Li's arms.  
  
"Gotcha," she said happily as she grabbed the towel.  
  
"Hey, take it easy would you," a little voice screamed.  
  
"Huh?" the couple both said at once.  
  
"I said, take it easy. I was sleeping in that towel."  
  
Sakura immediately recognised the demanding little voice.  
  
"Kero??? Is that you?"  
  
"You bet it is," he answered back, obviously quite angry.  
  
"And while you and Li have been getting close and mushy, I've been trying to get some sleep. Yeah, that's right, I've seen and heard everything," he said, puckering up his lips," mmm...kissy, kissy, kissy."  
  
Sakura and Li looked at each other and blushed. Li slowly let her out of his arms, allowing her to find Kero in her bag.  
  
Sakura tucked her long, light brown hair behind her ear and dug into her beach bag.  
  
A couple of seconds later, her hand remerged with Kero sitting patiently in her palm.  
  
"Kero," Li asked kneeling down beside Sakura, "what are you doing here?"  
  
"Why do you want to know, gati?"  
  
"Hey, stop calling me a...."  
  
"Li, Kero please stop it. Now Kero," she turned to her furry guardian once more, "answer us. What are you doing here?" Sakura asked him.  
  
"Well, when I heard that you guys were going to the beach, I decided, what with the nice day and everything, to go too. I was just going to sleep, and maybe come out for a little while every now and then to have a little sun tanning time. Do you guys know how good I would look with a tan? Anyway, you guys were not supposed to know," said Kero with a hint of annoyance in his voice.  
  
"Well Mr Kero, you should know better then to hide in a beach towel when we're at the beach, huh!" Answered Sakura in her most know-it-all voice.  
  
As Kero began to blush, Li tried to hold back a laugh. It was kinda funny. Seeing the almighty Kero, Guardian of the Seal, at the mercy of the beautiful Clow Misteress.  
  
Suddenly, the three of them heard cheering and a whistle blow.  
  
"Oh no," Li said, forgetting about Kero's uncomfortable situation, "that must be the volley ball competition starting. Come on Sakura! We don't want to miss Rita's big moment!"  
  
With that, he grabbed Sakura's hand and pulled her towards the competition.  
  
Kero, struggling with Sakura's beach bag, slowly followed.  
  
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~  
  
"COME ON, RITA!!!"  
  
All the young voices rang out.  
  
Maddison, Nikki, Chelsea, Kirsten and all of Rita's class from Reedington High were all sitting on top of a large sand dune. Sunhats on, sunblock applied thinkly over each little nose and a smile worn proudly over each pair of lips.  
  
"WOOHOO, COME ON RITA!!! YOUR NUMBER 1, BABY!!! KICK SOME SERIOUS ASS!!!"  
  
They yelled out again.  
  
Maddison was, as per usual, armed with her videocamera, eagerly taping the whole event, sometimes sneaking a peek at her fellow supporters and sometimes the eventful expression on Zachary and Rita's real coaches face.  
  
Zachary was seated directly beside the net, cheering on his "little spiker", as he liked to call her.  
  
"Come on, Rita. Lay it up, that's it, now, spike it!" he would yell. Rita's real coach would simply glare at the 17 year old as he yelled out to Rita what to do.  
  
The rest of the supporters were seated all over the beach dunes which surrounded the field, attention shared evenly between the competion, the calmly smooth sea and the wonderful atmosphere, created by the combination of both.  
  
Chelsea was completely loving the attention her new "guyfriend" was giving her.  
  
"Back rubs and massages are the best form of relaxation," he would say, as he rubbed his hands over her back.  
  
Chelsea simply sighed in return.  
  
"Jackson, could you please rub a little higher?" She asked sweetly.  
  
"Of course," he would simply answer her. He had came to their high school about 5 years ago, a little while after Li left. At first, he seemed to be aiming for a relationship with Sakura. Of course, he wasn't very experienced in this field of socializing, so therefore all the little hints that he left around that were intentions for a relationship, were not very effective.  
  
Then when Li finally came back to Reedington, and Sakura, Jackson's intentions sank. When he saw Li and Sakura together, sharing intermate moments and he was even there when they shared their first kiss, he totally lost himself in what would have been.  
  
However, he was able to take control of himself and soon found himself in the arms of fellow classmate, Chelsea. His feelings for her were obvious, and now they were completely unseperatible.  
  
Nikki was in a state of complete relaxation. Next year they were all of to college, but she had won a scholarship from one of the major universities in Tokyo and was now enjoying her last ounce of freedom before the start of the next school semester.  
  
She happily looked out to the perfect, blue ocean ahead and so wished that the competion would end quickly so that they could have a bit of fun in the surf and truly enjoy the warm weather while it lasted.  
  
Li and Melin's cousin Kirsten and her boyfriend Ricky were making out in the back of the crowd. Kirsten was another desendant of Clow Reed, however unlike Melin and Li, she was from Australia. Born in Japan but raised in Sydney, Kirsten moved there with her father after her mother passed away. Blessed with light brown-blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, a cute, perfect smile and an amazing slim, tanned figure, she also had unknowingly more power then her fellow desendants combined. She was able to use ESP and psychokinesis and was also a brilliant fighter when needed. Her Japanese father kept her connected to her Asian heritage by teaching her all of the martial arts. From Karate to Tae kwon do, she knew them all. And that is how she met Ricky.  
  
They met during a national martial art competion in Sydney, and it was during a battle between them (which Kirsten eventually won) that they developed feelings for each other. He told her before he left that he was attending Reedington High school in Japan and if she ever came to Japan to come and stay with him for a while.  
  
She asked her father about his offer and amazingly he agreed. He told her that it was about time she went home and that he really felt that it would be good for her. So together they moved from their large beachside mansion (they were quite a wealthy family) with Kirsten's new stepmom and into Reedington, Japan. However, Kirsten is no shy little girl, if anything she is quite the opposite. An outgoing teenager who loves nothing more then flirting and partying, she can also be quite calm and emotionless when called for.  
  
But there were no hesitations between Kirsten and Ricky and immediately they began dating.  
  
So here they were, together for 4 long years and enjoying every little bit of time they shared together.  
  
Kirsten finally met with Melin, Li and Sakura, and after feeling the auras coming from the two cardcaptors, she finally asked them the question, none of them were antisipating.  
  
~FLASHBACK~  
  
Kirsten sat at her computer, staring at the small picture on her bedside table. Slowly she got up and took the delicate protrait into her hands. She looked intently at the three men in the portrait. She closed her eyes and concentrated hard. Suddenly, her eyes flashed open.  
  
'I sense them,' she thought to herself, 'now I have to find them.'  
  
2 days later...  
  
"Hey, what are you doing?" Li shouted angrily.  
  
"Miss Chang wants to meet with the three of you," the expressionless body guard filled in to the obviously shocked and nervous young man.  
  
"Li, I don't want to go in. I haven't done anything wrong, why am I here?" Sakura asked of her boyfriend. She was in real distress and sobbing uncontrolibly in his arms.  
  
"I don't know, Sakura, but I know we're about to find out," he said as the large mahogany door to the Chang's library swung open.  
  
Li took his angry cousin and truly upset girlfriend by the hands. Together, the three of them followed the waiting attendant down the brightly lit hallway.  
  
The house was huge. It was even bigger then Maddison's mansion and that place was enormous. Finally, they came to an elegantly designed room, with enormous pictures and scrolls with ancient writing on the walls and artifacts, weapons and books displayed on the shelves and tables and in the cabinets.  
  
A huge roaring fire lit the room with two huge sofas and coffee table in the middle of it.  
  
But the most amazing part of it was the huge portrait which lay above the fireplace. It looked like some kind of mythical beast, sort of like Keroberus, but not quite. A lot more fiercier looking and scary.  
  
"You finally came," a voice interupted.  
  
The three teenagers wheeled around to face Kirsten and Ricky. They were looking very smart in their kimonos of silk and gold lace.  
  
The other three stood there gwaking at them while the calm couple simply bowed and walked passed, beckoning them to come.  
  
Sakura thought about running and escaping but the door was being closely guarded by two huge body guards.  
  
"It's no use Sakura", the beautiful blonde stated, interupting her thoughts.  
  
"Please, come, sit," Ricky asked of them.  
  
As soon as everyone was seated and comfortable, Li broke the silence.  
  
"What are you guys doing with us? What do you want?" he asked of them, his voice was calm, but shaking all the same.  
  
Kirsten simply reached for a small wooden box in the middle of the table. It had a pattern upon it which looked vaguely formiliar.  
  
She reached into it and pulled out a small picture. She eyed it for a second then handed it to the other three, sitting across from them.  
  
Melin took it cautiously, then looked at the picture herself. What she saw, caught her totally off guard. While she sat there, mouth wide open, Sakura took the fragile picture from her hands and her and Li eyed the same picture.  
  
Within it stood three men, two were identical while the other was different. They were standing in a tight huddle and staring emotionlessly, if anything they looked as if they were dead. To Li and Sakura, they looked like three ordinary old men. They looked at Kirsten, but she didn't look back. Instead her gaze was on Melin. Melin stuttered for a moment, then found her voice,  
  
"Where did you get that picture?" she asked in barely a whisper.  
  
Kirsten did not answer.  
  
Instead of asking again, Melin reached into the collar of her jumper and pulled out a small locket. She slowly opened it and handed it to Sakura and Li.  
  
They looked slowly at Melin and then to the locket. Their mouths also opened wide like Melin's.  
  
Within the locket was the same picture that Kirsten had just shown them. The same three men, the same expressionless faces.  
  
"Where did you get the picture?" Melin asked again.  
  
This time, Kirsten did answer.  
  
"It is a picture of my mother's ansestors, my greatened grandfather and uncles," she replied, taking back the small portrait she had first handed around.  
  
"That is strange," Melin confessed, "for those men are my greatened grandfather and uncles as well!"  
  
Kirsten eyed her for a moment then let out a smile of relief.  
  
And with that, Melin and Kirsten stood up and went to give each other a big, friendly hug. They laughed and cried for a brief moment, before a confused Li and Sakura stepped in.  
  
"Melin, what is going on?" Li asked of his cousin.  
  
The two smiling girls sat down and then explained that the picture they had both held were sacred portraits of the Clow brothers, and only direct desendants would have them in their hands. The twin brothers, Clow Reed, Clow Kahn and their youngest brother Clow Sharaon where the three men.  
  
After all the explanations, everyone seemed to understand. That night they invited Kero and Maddison over for a night of story exchanging, and most fun of all, partying......  
  
~END OF FLASHBACK~  
  
Now, everyone seemed to be relaxed, and enjoying the atmosphere. Rita was currently winning, 2 games to 1 and the crowd were certainly behind the young Japanese student.  
  
Maddison smiled her friend then turned her attention to the rest of the crew. With her video camera, she was able to get some shots of the two couples and Nikki.  
  
"Hey, how's it goin'?" a voice asked.  
  
Nikki and Maddison were the only ones to turn around, the other four were currently preoccupied.  
  
"Hey, Eriol, Melin!" the two girls replied.  
  
"Hi. Here's your hotdog Maddison. Sorry about the sause, the guy was a total klutz and spilt the stuff all over the place," Eriol said, handing the sloppy red hotdog to Maddison.  
  
She simply gave him a sweet smile and replied with a thankyou peck on the cheek as he sat down beside her. She looked at him as he did this, but then turned her attention to Melin.  
  
"Hey, Melin," Maddison asked. The young Chinese girl looked over at her friend.  
  
"I thought you said you couldn't come?"  
  
"Well, I was able to change my job interview to next week. And with the beautiful weather and all, who'd wanna be stuck in a hot, clammy office for three hours," she said with a smile.  
  
"Well, if you wanted we could have given you a lift. I feel a little guilty that we didn't come by on our way up," Maddison replied, looking a little guilty.  
  
Melin simply took her hand and looked at her sweetly, "don't worry 'bout it. Even if you had come by, I still would have said no, I only changed my mind at the very last minute."  
  
Maddison looked up and smiled at her.  
  
Melin turned around to see all there friends. As per usual, Kirsten and Ricky were making quiet a scene, playing spin the bottle with a bunch of other teenagers. Ricky was trying hard to restrain himself, by the look on his face, from grabbing Kirsten and rushing over to the bushes together for a little tongue exercise.  
  
Kirsten, on the other hand was continuously cheating and spinning the bottle only a little so it would land on Ricky. Then when they would accuse her, she would simply smile and blame it on the sand.  
  
"You just don't realise how hard it is to spin a bottle on sand," and with that she would claim her prize, Ricky's lips, yet again.  
  
Melin smiled at the couple and then noticed Jackson and Chelsea browsing through a magazine, with Jackson trying every few minutes to steal a kiss.  
  
Nikki was there also and had amazingly fallen asleep in the hot sun.  
  
Suddenly, her thoughts were interupted by a voice,  
  
"Hey guys, we finally found you," Li said pulling Sakura close behind.  
  
Everyone turned around and laughed as Sakura and Li trudged up the sand dune. Sakura's long brown hair was all over her face as she let go of Li's hand and embraced Maddison in a big hug. Li smiled and suddenly he turned his attention to his cousin.  
  
"Melin, what are you doing here?" he asked.  
  
"Ummm...I think that I'd better fill you in," Maddison said, seeing Melin rolling her eyes at having tell the story again.  
  
After Sakura, Li and a few of the others were filled in, Li nodded in understanding and took his place with Sakura on the towel. Maddison sighed at the cuteness of the pair as they struggled to both stay on the towel. They finally compromised, with Sakura sitting between Li's legs with her head leaning against his chest. He rested his head on her shoulder and sighed in contentment.  
  
"Hey, that's not fair," a voice rang out.  
  
Everyone looked behind them to see Kirsten grab Ricky's hand and march towards them.  
  
"If that cow thinks that she can have you, well she'd better think again," she screamed as she gave a death glare to the group of stunned teenagers.  
  
"Hey, baby take it easy," Ricky tried to calm down his girlfriend before she did something really outrageous, or even worse, something embarrasing.  
  
"Take it easy, TAKE IT EASY. How can I take it easy. That pig got the better of you. I told you to take it easy, but no, you didn't hear me, and now...." she was really shaking now, crying uncontrolably.  
  
"Sweetheart, you had better sit down," he said eyeing their towel which was only a couple of metres away.  
  
"How can I sit down. I-I..mean..do you even know what she did?" she looked deep into his emerald green eyes, demanding an answer.  
  
"Well, no...not really," he said, rubbing the back of his head with his hand.  
  
"She was grabbing your butt...how could you not notice that?" she looked really crushed.  
  
"Oh, Kirsten, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for it to go like that, I mean I tried to pull away, but everytime she grabbed me and deepened the kiss...I really couldn't help it. I guess I got kinda swept away. I'm so sorry," and with that he sealed his apology with a deep, thorough kiss.  
  
Kirsten tried to pull away and give him a glare, but she knew that trying to put up a fight with Ricky was useless. She eventually gave in and surrendered to the kiss.  
  
They reluctantly pulled away from each other and were startled to see hundreds of pairs of eyes staring at them. They blushed slightly and continued back toward the group.  
  
As they did so, she whispered in his ear,  
  
"I'm sorry, Rick. I shouldn't have doubted you like that," she admitted.  
  
Ricky turned back to his baby girl and tilted her face up towards his.  
  
"Don't worry about it. Let's just call it even, although my incident was a little more complicated then yours," he replied looking at her beautiful face. Her sky blue eyes turned teary again as a sweet smile climbed across her face.  
  
"Okay, but if your going to kiss me every time you make that kind of mistake, you might as well keep it up."  
  
He smiled at her mischieviously.  
  
"No, I take that back. I think I would rather prefer to have you to myself," she said nuzzling her nose against his.  
  
He smiled yet again and the continued over to their towels.  
  
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~  
  
"AND THE WINNER IS, FROM THE BLUE SIDE, RITA!"  
  
"CONGRATULATIONS!!!!"  
  
Rita smiled exhaustedly at the judge who announced her victory and bowed respectfully at him and the other judges. She then turned to her opponant, who like the rest of the crowd, was applauding her win. She blushed slightly as she looked him over. His spikey black hair was all over the place and beads of sweat were still visible on his forehead. He noticed her staring at him and nervously turned away before she saw him blush.  
  
"COULD THE WINNER AND THE RUNNER-UP PLEASE COME FORWARD TO COLLECT THEIR TROPHIES" the judge announced happily.  
  
Both Rita and the boy (who she soon found out was named C.J) came up to receive their trophies and medalions. Rita also received a scholarship to the AIS (Asian Insitute for Sport) for volleyball.  
  
"AND THAT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, CONCLUDES OUR NATIONAL VOLLEYBALL COMPETION FOR TODAY. PLEASE, ENJOY THE REST OF THE DAY HERE."  
  
The crowd applauded the acomplishments of the two volleyballers and slowly they began to go their separate directions.  
  
After most of the people had left, Rita turned to the boy who was now packing his sports bag.  
  
"Great match, Rita," a voice commented.  
  
Rita turned around to see her coach, Fung Shi walking towards her. A proud smile covered his face. He gave her a hug and a pat on the back.  
  
"I'm going to get changed so I can go have a swim. Again, great game. I am so proud of you."  
  
And with that, he smiled and turned away in the direction of the change rooms.  
  
"You know, he's right. That was a great game. Congratulations. You sure deserved it," C.J said, holding out his hand.  
  
Rita looked at his hand and then took it within hers and shook it firmly.  
  
"Yes it was a great game. Congratulations to you to," she smiled her best smile at him.  
  
He smiled back, then started off toward the direction of the carpark. Without knowing it, Rita blurted out an invitation,  
  
"Hey C.J, if your not doing anything this afternoon, would you like to, ummmm...I don't know, hang out or something?"  
  
C.J stopped and turned around to face Rita. He was smiling,  
  
"I would like that..."  
  
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~  
  
"Hey guys, it looks like Rita's made a friend, and by the looks of it, a very good friend," Nikki announced, freashly woken up from her nap.  
  
"Ohhhhh, yeah, I think she has," added Chelsea who had joined Nikki while Jackson went with Ricky and Li to get some drinks.  
  
Before the three boys left, Maddison gave Eriol the look of 'okay this is your cue to leave the girls alone while you get us some drinks'. Eriol noticed this then went speeding after the others.  
  
"Do you two do anything but perve on others, just leave the two of them alone," Maddison implied in her most agrivated voice.  
  
"I agree. I think that...." Sakura started, but was interupted by a rather excited Chelsea.  
  
"Ohmigod....they're coming this way, ouch!!!" Chelsea yelled as Kirsten jumped beside her.  
  
"Oh man, really. Oh, oh this is so cute. She's gonna bring him up here," Kirsten was obviously really excited.  
  
"Uuuhhhhh..... oh no, they're not..."  
  
"Whadda you mean they're not?" Kirsten's sudden excitement was cut short by the words of Nikki.  
  
"Yeah, they're not what?" another voice rang out.  
  
All the girls turned around to face the owner of the voice.  
  
Zachary.  
  
"Zachary, where have you been?" Sakura asked him.  
  
"Well, someone thought it would be funny to carry me in my chair and place us in the sea," he said, obviously annoyed.  
  
"Why, didn't you stop them?" Nikki asked.  
  
"How could I when I was.....asleep," he admitted sheepishly.  
  
All the girls simply sighed and went back to their study.  
  
"Hey, where's Li and the rest of the guys? And what in the world are you girls doing?" Zachary questioned Sakura.  
  
"The guys are down at the food stand getting some drinks, oh don't worry, I told Li to bring back a couple extra in case you and Rita came back thirsty," she noted sweetly.  
  
"Oh, thanks. And the second part of my question?"  
  
"Ummm... well they're kinda spying on Rita and her new friend," Sakura confessed.  
  
"Hey Zachary," a voice called, "whatcha up to, mate?"  
  
Sakura and Zachary looked in the direction of the voice just in time to see the guys come jogging up the sand dunes.  
  
"Yo, Ricky. Long time, no see," Zachary called as he and Ricky slapped each other high five.  
  
Sakura's eyes travelled from the extravagent boys to her boyfriend who had just handed Zachary his soda. She smiled at him as he resumed his posision behind her on the beachtowel. Her eyes lit up as he handed her a strawberry fizz, her favourite soft drink.  
  
"For you, my lady," he said like a true gentleman, handing her the drink and planting a small kiss on her cheek.  
  
"Oooo....thankyou. What flavour did you get?" she said before opening hers.  
  
"Ummmm...it's called Coconut Tang. I thought I might give it a try," he said, eyeing the bottle.  
  
"You always were the brave one," she giggled, while opening hers.  
  
Li took one sip of his and gave her a satisfied smile.  
  
"This one is really good. Would you like to give it a try?" he asked her sweetly.  
  
"Mmmmm...sure." She took the bottle from his hand and prepared herself for the taste.  
  
As she did this, Li wrapped his arms around her waist and nestled his head in her shoulder. The scent of (you guessed it) Cherry Blossoms filled his head, as he fought for control of his mind and body.  
  
Sakura noticed the sudden tension in his body and ruffled his hair with her free hand.  
  
"Baby?"  
  
"Mmmmm?"  
  
A silly thought went through Sakura's mind.  
  
"Would you like to try mine?"  
  
Li looked up confused, from Sakura's shoulder and to her face. What he saw was pure innocence.  
  
"It tastes good?" she said teasingly.  
  
Li studied her facial features then shook his head in defeat.  
  
"Sure, I'll taste it," he said coolly.  
  
"Ok, on the count of three. One, two, three!"  
  
On the count of three Sakura took a swig of Li's drink while Li took a swig of Sakura's.  
  
As if by magic, the couple spat the drink that they had just taken into the air.  
  
"Well, I guess, we really don't have the same tastes," Sakura admitted.  
  
Li nodded, but then started smirking at something.  
  
"What is it Li?"  
  
"Ummm...you've got a little bit of froth on your nose," he openly admitted.  
  
But before Sakura could wipe it off, Li leant forward a kissed the tip of her nose.  
  
"Okay, all gone," he laughed proudly.  
  
"Thanks for tha..." Sakura was cut off by Li's lips brushing hers.  
  
"That was uncalled for," she cocked her eyebrow.  
  
"Yeah, but it was well received," he whispered into her ear.  
  
She gasped at Li, who saw this as the perfect opportunity. He crushed their lips together yet again and finished what he started earlier...  
  
  
  
Jackson and Chelsea stared at the couple who were know making out on the beach towel.  
  
"Gee, well it doesn't take them much to get it going," a shocked Jackson addmitted.  
  
Chelsea simply nodded in agreement.  
  
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~  
  
"So you really want to meet my friends do you?" Rita asked C.J.  
  
"Yeah sure, I would love too."  
  
"Alright, but don't be shocked by what you see," she warned him.  
  
He laughed in agreement.  
  
No, I'm serious, she thought, don't be shocked by what you see!  
  
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~  
  
"No way, he really said that to you?"  
  
"W-what did you reply?"  
  
"I simply told him we should remain friends. He told me he understood, and he also thought it would be stupid to start a relationship like that right before college..." Nikki was cut off by Kirsten, who had, by now, developed a knack for that.  
  
She shook her head slightly and brushed her light blonde hair out of her face. She then looked a Nikki as if she had just heard the most stupidest thing in the world.  
  
"Nik, ever heard of e-mail?" she asked the other teenager.  
  
Nikki gave her a deep greasy, then continued talking to the rest of the group.  
  
"Ummmm...hi guys," a weak sounding voice rang out.  
  
The faces of the five girls turned around to see a very *exhaused* looking Sakura making her way towards them. Her hair was all messed up, and although she was tired, she wore a very content look on her face.  
  
They girls looked at her with cocked eyebrows and naughty grins, all except for Maddison, who had sighed after seeing Sakura's hair and went back to her bag in search for her hair brush.  
  
"Get a little dirty, didn't we Sakura?" asked Melin teasingly.  
  
Sakura blushed as she sat down on the beach towel and allowed Maddison to clean up her hair.  
  
"Hey Sakura? I hear that Li's a good kisser?" Chelsea asked curiously. "Is it true?"  
  
"GOOD??? Ohmigod, Chelsea, he's the greatest. He has this really unique way of...."  
  
All the girls listened intently as Sakura filled them in on Li's kissing style. Of course she kept some things to herself, but the rest of the crew hoped to pick something up to teach their boyfriends.....  
  
MEANWHILE, IN THE BOYS GOSSIP GROUP....  
  
"Hey Li, I hear that Sakura has the best body...is it true, hey!"  
  
Li picked up Jackson by the collar of his Hawiian t-shirt and gave him a major death glare.  
  
"Who in the hell told you that, have you been spying on my girlfriend again?"  
  
"N-n-noooo...no way man, I swear. I just guessed, seeing that your always muttering how good she looks in everything and you always stare at her like this," he said pulling a facial empression of a goldfish, with wide eyes and a gawking mouth.  
  
Li started laughing and put Jackson down, he knew his friend would never spy on Sakura, especially when he knew that he was around.  
  
After the laughter of the group died down, he stared intently at his friends.  
  
"But if you guys really wanna know, Sakura not only has the best body, but she is also amazing with.."  
  
"Hey, Sakura maybe good, but Kirsten is better," Ricky called out above Li.  
  
"You wanna bet?" Li asked him daringly.  
  
"Sure, let's wrestle for it. Ahhhhhhh...." Ricky yelled, jumping on Li, who simply flipped him over.  
  
"We're a little slow today, aren't we?" Li said, smiling at his friend.  
  
"At least I haven't put my guard down"  
  
"Huh? Wowwwww..."  
  
Li cried out, as Ricky knocked his feet down from under him. Immediately, the two began wrestling on the ground. The other boys laughed and cheered the two on.  
  
"Come on Li!"  
  
"Knock his socks of Rick!"  
  
While this was happening, the girls looked on in pure amazement. Sakura and Kirsten were not impressed by their boyfriends actions. The other girls smiled as their friends hid their faces in embarassment, however, the other girls faces also turned bright red when the other boys joined in the wrestle.  
  
Apparently, Ricky knocked some sand up into Jackson's eyes, while he was patting Eriol on the back, causing him to punch him the back of the head instead (and there is also the fact that the boys were getting bored watching the other boys have all the fun.)  
  
Sakura looked at Kirsten who was staring at them in shock horror.  
  
"Hey, what in the hell? Ricky Shichan, get off him right now, or else you will not get, you know what, this afternoon!" She suddenly yelled.  
  
When she realised that Ricky had not heard a single word she had said, she simply put her arms down and gave out a sigh of defeat. However, beneath the exhaused exterior she smiled evilly to herself.  
  
'Oh Ricky boy, you sure have guts, ignoring what I just said. But I would never deny you our litt....'  
  
"Aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!"  
  
Kirsten's little daydream was suddenly interrupted by Maddison's scream. She woke up just in time to receive a bump to the head, curtosy of Zachary's elbow.  
  
"Hey watch out!!! Oooppps, to late," he cried out, with what seemed to be a small smirk.  
  
Kirsten had had it. Her piercing blue eyes suddenly saw red and the other girls saw her body tense up and her fist clench together.  
  
"Uh oh, I think she just got mad," Melin quietly whispered to the others.  
  
And with that comment on her mind, she rushed over to the pile of stupid, immature boys and rather quickly gave them a piece of her mind.  
  
One by one she peeled the boys away from each other, pushing each back toward the semi circle of waiting girls who to wanted to give their fellows a piece of their minds.  
  
Kirsten finally reached Ricky at the bottom of the pile, with a small bruised patch under his eye. He gave Kirsten a sweet innocent smile, but Kirsten angrily dragged him up by his Hawaiian shirt and into the near by bushes.  
  
Within a few minutes, all the girls were fixing up their boyfrinds bruises and scratches and warning them about what would happen if anything like that ever happened again. The boys reluctantly apologised to their girlfriends, upset that they were the ones who were being controlled. However, the last thing that they wanted to see was an upset girlfriends.  
  
So one by one they gave the girls the best smiles and their words. After the girls were satisfied and accepted the apologies, life on the sand dune returned back to normal.  
  
"Hey guys, miss me?" a voice called out from near the sand dune. Everyone looked around, except for Li and Sakura and Jackson and Chelsea who were again locking lips on the beach towels.  
  
"Don't these guys every give it up?" Eriol thought with a sigh, then he too, looked toward the direction of the voice.  
  
Slowly a very tired Rita came trudging up the dune. The reason for being so tied, was the massive trophy that she had to bring back to their site.  
  
"Hey Rita, need a hand with that. Hey come on Li, Jackson, Rita needs a hand here," Eriol said, slowly removing the trophy from one hand.  
  
The two boys looked up from their respective positions and stared angrily at Eriol, who simply shrugged and looked away, finally happy to put the two lovebirds to some good use.  
  
They slowly got up off the towels and went to help Rita. Chelsea and Sakura sighed as their boyfriends left them to help Rita. They looked at each other and finally agreed to get up.  
  
"Hey Maddison, what's the time? I forgot my watch in the car," Nikki asked.  
  
"Ummmm, it's about 11.45, nearly lunchtime," Maddison replied.  
  
'Oh no,' Sakura thought, 'I forgot about Kero..'  
  
Quickly, Sakura went through their esky and pulled out a small fruit box and a museli bar. She then popped them into her bag, where she was sure she heard a little voice say,  
  
"Thank you Sakura, oh thank you! If your lips hadn't been all over that Li kid, I would kiss you! Oh thank you, you don't realise how hot it is down here!"  
  
She blushed a Kero's second last statement, but then turned her attention to the front of the group where Rita was trying to get everyones attention.  
  
"Ahem, ladies and gent...."  
  
"Hey get off, you. Don't touch what you can't afford!"  
  
"Well I'd better start savin' up then, huh?"  
  
Rita looked really annoyed. She had finally summond up enough courage to tell the group about C.J and how he had just asked her out, when she was so rudely interrupted by to two people in the bushes.  
  
Everybody knew immediately who it was.  
  
"Ricky and Kirsten," they all muttered under their breaths.  
  
Of course, Rita didn't know about the fight and how Kirsten had dragged Ricky into the bushes, so she was left wondering who it was.  
  
Slowly the breathless pair emerged from the bushes, hair completely mattered and twigs and sand stuck all over their bodies. Their dramatic entry had earned them continual stares, while Jackson was giving Ricky a huge smile and the thumbs up signal and Maddison was rummaging through her bag again trying to find her hairbrush.  
  
After everyone had eventually calmed down, Rita resumed her place at the front of the gang.  
  
"Well, after that slight interuption," she started, giving Kirsten and Ricky 'you-had-better-not-interupt-again' faces, "I think it is time I told you about my situation."  
  
Everyone looked at each other in wonder, while Melin smiled to herself, having a feeling that she knew what was coming next.  
  
"Today, after the tournament, I met my opponant. He is a nice boy who comes from Hong Kong."  
  
Everyone looked at Li, who simply shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"His name is C.J, and no, Li and him do not know each other. Anyway he is really nice and c-cute and s-s-sweet a-a-and,"  
  
"Just get to the point Rita," someone yelled out.  
  
"And what I am trying to say is, that he asked me out!" she exclaimed, holding her breath, waiting for her friends responses.  
  
The dune suddenly went silent.  
  
Again, it was Kirsten who broke the deadly silence.  
  
"Wow are you serious?" she asked jumping up to look Rita square in the face.  
  
Everyone looked at Kirsten as if she was crazy.  
  
"Yeah, Kirsten. I'm serious," Rita replied, looking at her dumbfounded friend.  
  
Kirsten let out a deep breath and sat back down,  
  
"Oh wow, Rita," she said, slightly shaking her head, "I never thought it could be possible that you would actually like a guy, more less actually go out with a one."  
  
Rita blushed slightly.  
  
"You, miss, and let me quote 'I think that guys are disgousting, foul, obnoxious crepps'."  
  
"Well that was a long time ago.."  
  
"Rita, it was just last week," Kirsten corrected her.  
  
"Anyway, my views about guys have now changed, for your information and I am very happy," she said looking into space and letting out a content smile.  
  
"Well, I'm happy for you," Kirsten answered her.  
  
Everyone looked at Kirsten, including Rita and wondered if what they had just heard was true.  
  
"Yeah, I am. It's good to see your truly happy," and with that, she got back up and went and gave her friend a big hug.  
  
"Ohhhhhhhhh," were the sounds they received.  
  
"But remember," Kirsten whispered to Rita drawing her attention back to one another, "if he hurts you, all you have to do is tell me and I'll come and kick his ass for you."  
  
Rita smiled and nodded.  
  
"Hey Rita?" Maddison called out.  
  
"Huh, yeah?" Rita replied as she and Kirsten let go of one another and Kirsten headed back to her seat next to Ricky.  
  
"When do we get to meet this, C.J, Hmmmmm?" Melin asked curiously.  
  
"Well you can meet him now, if you really want to?" she replied shyly.  
  
"Ohhh yes, I would love to meet him," Sakura spoke up excitedly.  
  
"Yes, so would I. It seems the two of us might have something in common. You know, being from Hong Kong and all," Li added tightening his grip aroung Sakura's waist.  
  
"Okay, I'll get him."  
  
Rita wondered back down the sand dune and called out C.J's name a couple of times.  
  
A few moments later she reemerged with a boy about their age holding her hand. He had now combed his dark brown hair back, although it still stood up rather spikey and his dark brown eyes twinkled with excitement. Rita brought him over in front of the group and proudly announced her new boyfriend.  
  
"Okay guys this is C.J. C.J, this is the gang," she exclaimed excitedly pointing to her bunch of whispering and gawking friends.  
  
"That's Maddison," she said pointing at the dark haired girl sitting in the back corner of the group, "she's like the photographer of the group, and with her is her boyfriend Eriol who is an exchange student from England."  
  
Maddison and Eriol stood up and gave a traditional bow. C.J politly bowed back.  
  
"And next to them are Kirsten and Ricky. Both of them are masters of the martial arts and love to party and have a good time. Kirsten moved here from Australia 4 years ago and Ricky came to our school from Tokyo about 5," she finally stated, taking in a deep breath of air.  
  
Ricky and Kirsten got up and gave a bow.  
  
"That's Sakura and Li..."  
  
"Sakura's boyfriend Li," Nikki chimed in.  
  
"Oh, of course. Sakura's BOYFRIEND Li, happy?"  
  
"Quite."  
  
"Mmmm...anyway they've been together for five years and Li's originally from Hong Kong too. Ummmm... Sakura's a fine gymnast and is contracted to a modelling agency, just like her mom. To their left is Li's cousin, Melin. Also from Hong Kong and a fine fighter she was like supposably bethroaded to Li or something, but eventually let Sakura have him," she said giggling.  
  
Rita went on for another ten minutes, babbling on about everyone and explaining things like their relationships and love lives.  
  
"Do you want me to shut her up?" Eriol asked, sarcastically.  
  
"Oh, come on. Let her enjoy this a little more. I mean she's never dated in her life. Everyones gotta start somewhere," she answered him, as she leaned against his shoulder. He smiled at her and put his hand around her waist, planting a small kiss on the top of her head.  
  
It also seemed that Chelsea and Jackson were getting bored with Rita's consistant babbling and eventually got themselves caught up in a game on tooties (or toe hockey). The giggled and eventually got the eye from Rita, but they completely ingnored her.  
  
Sakura was resting her head in Li's lap, as he stroked her long hair. They were listening to Rita, but as they alway's did, they got swept away into their own little dreamland.  
  
Melin and Nikki were reading a girly magazine and were reading the "How Embarrassing" page. Every few minutes they would start giggling and pointing at the page.  
  
As for Kirsten and Ricky, the two of them were in deep conversation with Zachary about body deodourents and whether chocolate icecream was better then strawberry.  
  
In any case, Rita finally decided that no one was paying attention to her anymore and let out an exhaused sigh and threw her hands up in the air.  
  
"I give up," she said collapsing on the ground.  
  
"Ha ha ha," C.J laughed as his new girlfriend gave up on her friends.  
  
He sat down beside her and wrapped his arms around her. The whole group seemed to seperate for that brief second, when Ricky, Zachary and Kirsten stood up.  
  
"Guys we're going to go snorkling. We think it's time we got off this pile of sand and had some fun in the water. If anyone wants to come then grab your stuff now," Kirsten said, going through her bag and grabbing a red snorkle, mask and flippers.  
  
"I'm coming, what about you Li?" Sakura spoke up.  
  
"I'll go where ever you want me to, my love," he said, smiling sweetly and claiming her lips with his.  
  
"Oh, how cute," Maddison sighed as she viewed everything through her video camera.  
  
"How do you get that thing out so quickly?" Li asked her when he let go of Sakura.  
  
"After doing it for almost 7 years, you slowly get the knack of it," she replied.  
  
Li sighed as the group laughed at them.  
  
Five minutes later, every one was ready to go snorkling. Only Rita and C.J were left on the dune.  
  
"Hey guys, do you wanna go snorkling or not?" Zachary asked impatiently.  
  
"Hmmm..I don't know. Whadda ya think C.J?" Rita asked, looking at him deep in the eyes.  
  
"I think it would be great fun. Let's do it!" He announced.  
  
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~  
  
The brilliant blue ocean waters shimmered in the sunlight, as 13 teenagers dived into it. They had decided to go in groups of 4, as it would be much more easier to see all the sights.  
  
Maddison and Eriol joined up with Sakura and Li, while Kirsten and Ricky went with Zachary, Nikki and Melin. The last group consisted of Jackson, Chelsea, C.J and Rita.  
  
They decided that they should meet back at the campsite at 2.30 so they could organise the tents and go fishing.  
  
So they went their own ways, Sakura's group went to the left, Kirsten's to the right and Nikki's straight ahead.  
  
IN SAKURA'S GROUP....  
  
Sakura held onto Li's hand as they slowly moved behind Maddison and Eriol. The water was absolutely beautiful and warm and it was all so clear. They spotted a few brightly coloured fishes, octopuses, seahorses and other things like coral. They we're just about to move on, when Li spotted an old shipwreak. He beckoned to the others to follow on as he swam towards it. It was truly a breath taking sight, and they soon found out why.  
  
Ever dream about finding a sunken treasure, well, that's what they did.  
  
They hardly noticed it at first, but then Sakura saw something glisten inside the wreak. At first, she was scared, so she grabbed Li's arm over to her. He looked confused, so Sakura pointed toward the spot where she had seen the sparkle. Li couldn't believe what he saw when it happened again, so he beconded for Maddison and Eriol come have a look see.  
  
A little golden box was sitting in the middle of the room. The rest of the room was covered in coral and weed, but this little jewelery box was as clean and shiny as the sort of stuff you see in the shops or in the museum.  
  
Li slowly swam into the wreck, minding the fragile state of the room and slowly grabbed the heavy box off its stand. He beackoned for Eriol to come and help him. Together the two boys stuggled and finally got the box out of its private room and out into the open. They again gestured to the girls to come and help them. Together the foursome towed the golden chest back to shore.  
  
IN KIRSTEN'S GROUP...  
  
Melin, Nikki, Zachary, Ricky and Kirsten were finally happy to take a rest. They had swam a long way and were now resting against a little bouy floating in the ocean.  
  
"Man, Zachary, that sure feels better," completemented Ricky, letting out a relaxed sigh.  
  
"Your sure right. Man I would give anything to do this every day, how 'bout you?" he asked the other teenagers.  
  
"Mmmmmmm," they simply replied.  
  
"Hey guys?" Melin asked, turning to the friends.  
  
"Yeah, what is it, Melin?" Kirsten replied.  
  
"Isn't that Sakura on the beach?" she asked, eyeing the shore.  
  
Her friends squinted in the sunlight to get a better view.  
  
"Hey your right. And there's Eriol and Maddison and Li, and they seem to be dragging something to shore. Can you tell what it is, Rick?" Kirsten said, turning to her boyfriend.  
  
"Well, it looks like a box of some kind. Let's go and find out what it is, okay?" Ricky asked the group.  
  
"Yeah," they cried out as they slipped their masks back on and headed back to the shore.  
  
CHELSEA'S GROUP....  
  
"Do you know where we are?"  
  
"No, do you?"  
  
"I can't believe this..."  
  
"Hey, you were the leader..."  
  
"But you were there one who came here every summer!"  
  
As the two girls continuously babbled on, C.J and Jackson stared up at the cloudless blue sky, and for the first time they really wondered what they had gotten themselves into.  
  
"Rita, I think it's that way," C.J stated, interrupting the girls arguement.  
  
"Why, what makes you think its that way?" Rita asked, rather confused.  
  
"Well, take a close look. See, there can you see the mainland?" Jacckson said, pointing towards the east.  
  
"Hey yeah, I can. Nikki, come here? I think that the boys are right," she exclaimed excitedly, grabbing her best friends wrist.  
  
"Ohmigod, your right. Let's go. There's no way that I'm ever doing this again," she quicky stated, checking the mask and snorkle on her face.  
  
"Uh huh!" The other three cried in unison, as the speed back toward the sandy beach.  
  
BACK TO SAKURA'S GROUP.....  
  
"Oh wow guys, do you think this could be some kind of pirate treasure?" Maddison asked, eyeing the chest with her video camera.  
  
"P-p-p-pirates?" Sakura stuttered, grabbing Li's hand tightly.  
  
Li eyed his frightened girlfriend and smiled down at her. He had promised to always be her guardian and protection, ever since they first met. He loved the way she would grab his arm and cuddle him close, as if he was a shield to protect her from the world. It just proved the point that she needed him, just as much as he needed her.  
  
As they sat on the sand, Li wrapped his arm around his girlfriend's naked waist and kissed her lightly on the head (yes, Sakura was wearing a bikini).  
  
"Sweetheart, there is no such things as pirates," he reminded her softly.  
  
"Of course Li, there is the chance that there could be some paranormal being involved in this..." Eriol whispered cautiously, smiling as he saw he best friends girlfriend shudder.  
  
"Paranormal? Do you mean like, g-g-g-ghosts?" again she stuttered and again she tightened her grip on Li's hand.  
  
"Eriol!!!" Maddison cried out as she saw the fear on her best friends face.  
  
She was about to come closer, when Li held out his hand to stop her. He pleaded with her eyes for her to just let him handle it. She sighed then smiled. She turned around and grabbed Eriol's hand. It was obvious that Li wanted some more time alone with his little Cherry Blossom.  
  
Eriol tried to object, but when he did, both Maddison and Li shot him a death glare.  
  
He agreed with himself to just do what they said and give them some time alone.  
  
After both Maddison and Eriol were gone Li kissed Sakura's head again.  
  
"Sakura?" he whispered softly into her ear.  
  
Sakura looked up her boyfriend and was immediantly greeted with warm, friendly eyes.  
  
"Li, is Eriol right. I mean, could there really be some paranormal thing out there?"  
  
Li stared at Sakura. He would normally laugh at her, or tell her that she was a wimp, but this time, after seeing the torment in the eyes of his lover, he decided not to.  
  
Instead, he rubbed his thumb over her cheek and tightened his hold on her waist, pulling her even closer to him. Sakura just stared intently back at him, back into those deep, amber eyes.  
  
"Sakura," he whispered, "there is nothing out there. I promise that I will always protect you and remain honest with you. What Eriol was saying was just a lie. A lie to get you even more frightened then you already are. He saw the way you trembled when Maddison mentioned pirates. You know what he's like sometimes," he said with a sigh.  
  
With his words, he immediately felt Sakura relax, therefore being able to relax himself. Her head was tucked in the crook of his neck at that current moment, but Li felt that the time was right.  
  
With his free hand, he pushed Sakura's little head up and stared deeply into her emerald green eyes. They were shining beautifully in the sunlight and were, with her gorgeous smile, an amazing combination. He gently swept a few strands of hair from her face and she blushed slightly under his touch.  
  
Then, with a quick and swift movement, Li brushed his lips against Sakura's. Gently at first but within a few seconds, Sakura began to demand for more. She let go of Li's hand and then wrapped the two of them around his neck and pulled him deeper into the kiss. They each let out a silent moan as there emotions got swept away with the wind.  
  
Slowly, Li began to lower Sakura onto her back and into the sand. He supported her back and head with his hands and then pulled out of the kiss to both grab a little of composure and air and to as well, marvel at the beautiful, angelic face of his lover.  
  
"God, Sakura. Your absolutely beautiful," he whispered as he again lowered his lips to Sakura's.  
  
Sakura smiled sultery as she saw Li coming back for more of her. Quickly, their lips joined together in unison. Li smiled to himself when he thought of Tori's facial expression if he had saw the two of them like this.  
  
"Li," she whispered against his lips.  
  
"Mmmmm?"  
  
"We can't go that far."  
  
Li finally pulled his lips away from hers. He looked deeply into her eyes, and although he saw love and trust, he also saw fear of her feelings. She trusted him more then anyone she knew, but she was scared that her feelings for him could take away her senses. Her senses that told her to stop and resist and not let her pleasure and emotions take a hold of her.  
  
Li thought carefully about what she had said and then nodded at her.  
  
"Sakura, you know that I love you more then anything," he confessed. Sakura blushed but nodded in agreement.  
  
"And you know that I would never, ever force you into something that you were not ready for." He released his hand from under her back and stroked her face with it.  
  
"And I promise you now. For the rest of eternity," he smiled slightly as he saw tears come to Sakura's eyes, "for now and forever. I will keep that very promise to you. To you and," his smile widened even more, "our children and grandchildren and everyone that follows."  
  
And with those words he watched Sakura break into tears. He slowly got off her and helped her sit up on the sand. She lent up against his shoulder and he held her with everything he had. She sobbed quietly for about 3 minutes and then looked up at her committed boyfriend. Instead of seeing tears, he saw a bright smile surrounded by a beautiful face.  
  
"Thank you," she whispered quietly.  
  
"Anytime," he replied, "anything for you, Ying Fa."  
  
She smiled shyly, but instead of turning away, she knelt up and whispered in his ear,  
  
"I only said that we should take it slow, I never said that we should stop what we were doing," she addmitted in a sultery tone.  
  
Li looked at Sakura and gasped. Sakura saw this as a good opportunity and leapt onto Li, claiming his lips as her own. Li let his guard down, and was therefore knocked over onto his back.  
  
Sakura continued where they had currently left off, and kissed Li with more passion and desire then she ever knew she had.  
  
"Li"  
  
"Sakura"  
  
They moaned against each others lips.  
  
"Guys?" a voice gasped.  
  
Li and Sakura immediately released from each other and looked up. Melin, Zachary, Nikki, Ricky and Kirsten looked down at the blushing couple.  
  
"Having fun?" Nikki asked.  
  
Sakura stared down at Li who simply cocked his eyebrow and smiled back at her. Sakura smiled back at Li then up at Nikki.  
  
"Well, for your information, yes, we were," she answered her friend.  
  
Nikki was shocked at her friends responce. She would normally expect Sakura to blush or pull away from Li. However, this time, Sakura stayed where she was, and Nikki, Kirsten and Melin smiled as the young Clow Misteress played with her boyfriends lips with her own.  
  
However, Zachary and Ricky were getting rather annoyed and bored with the situation.  
  
"Okay lover boy," Ricky said, nudging Li's foot.  
  
When Li ignored them, he decided to take action.  
  
"Hey," Sakura giggled as Zachary scooped her up off Li.  
  
She laughed as Ricky "helped" Li to his feet and Zachary put her down.  
  
They immediately speed back into each others arms.  
  
"Hey Sakura, do you want a piggy back?" Li asked her cutely.  
  
"Oh, yes please Li," she said, jumping up and down happily.  
  
She then hopped onto his back and wrapped her arms around his neck.  
  
The others sighed,  
  
"I don't think we'll ever separate them."  
  
Suddenly, Maddison and Eriol ran back up toward the group. Maddison looked at Li and Sakura and sighed angrily, "hey, you didn't tell me that you two were going to start getting cute. I could of grabbed my camera!"  
  
Li and Sakura smiled at their friend, "all the better for us though, huh?"  
  
Maddison thought for a moment, but then sighed and reached into her bag, retrieving her camera.  
  
"Oh, just you two wait. I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!" and with that she gave off an evil cackle.  
  
The others laughed as they realised that the line was from "The Wizard of Oz".  
  
"Hey, what did we miss?" another voice rang out.  
  
The whole group turned around to see a very exhaused looking Chelsea, Jackson, Rita and C.J.  
  
"Where have you four been? Or shouldn't I ask?" Melin asked the tired teenagers.  
  
Chelsea glared at her and replied, "don't even go there."  
  
The rest of the group just laughed.  
  
"No seriously guys, where have you been?" Maddison asked them as they plopped onto the sand.  
  
"Well, we kinda got lost," admitted Rita, glaring at Chelsea, who looked away in guilt.  
  
"Chelsea?" Ricky asked.  
  
"Yeah, well she comes here every summer, so she should know her way around I suppose," Rita continued.  
  
Kirsten looked at Chelsea in wonder,  
  
"Well Chelsea, do you have anything to say?"  
  
"Well, not really. I just kinda got a little lost. But we found our way back, didn't we?" Chelsea confessed.  
  
Sakura stood up and sat down beside Chelsea,  
  
"I believe you, Chels," she said positively, putting her arm around Chelsea's shoulders.  
  
"Well it's good to see someone does," she said cocking her eyebrow at the others.  
  
Sakura giggled as the others shook their heads and began laughing themselves.  
  
"We believe ya Chelsea," they all admitted.  
  
"Yeah, I forgive ya too," Rita sighed as C.J whispered something in her ear.  
  
Sakura looked at Li, and Li nodded back, smiling. The two of them had their own ideas of what was going through new couples heads. Sakura turned her head toward C.J and Rita, smiling at their cuteness as they nuzzled noses.  
  
"Hey Sakura," Sakura was drawn out of her daydream by Chelsea.  
  
"Ummmm...yeah, what is it?" she asked drawing her attention from the cute couple.  
  
"We saw you guys dragging a chest onto shore. What was it?" Chelsea asked in wonder.  
  
"Yeah, we saw it to," Zachary agreed.  
  
"Tell us what was in it?" Melin added. "Please?"  
  
Sakura gasped. She had almost forgotten about the chest, because of Li and everything else. She looked over to where the large chest sat. The others followed her gaze and were startled to see the chest. It wasn't one of those humongous, golden chests, but it was eye catching all the same.  
  
It was about knee hight tall and about half a metre wide. Most of the case was covered in coral and fungi stuff but there was still bits of gold and metal visable.  
  
"Sakura?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"You haven't answered me? What's in the chest?" Melin asked again.  
  
"Well, we haven't opened it yet. We didn't know how to. We thought that we should wait for you guys to open it," she said, quickly making something up. She looked at Maddison, Eriol and Li, begging them to follow on.  
  
"Sakura's right we haven't been able to open it. So we thought we might wait for you guys and take it up to the dune and open it," Eriol quickly backed Sakura up.  
  
"Well, what are we waiting for. Let's get this baby up to the mound!" Ricky shouted enthusiastically, running up to the chest.  
  
"Yeah," the rest of the group shouted as they also got up and raced to the chest.  
  
So, with the chest covered over by Maddison's towel which she got from her beach bag, the group made its way back to the sand dune. The boys carried the sides of the chest and the girls carried all the snorkling gear back to their mound of sand and luckily, they didn't get many curious faces from the crowd of beach goers.  
  
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~  
  
"Where is Sakura? I'm starvin' in here," a little voice whispered back in Sakura's bag on the sand dune.  
  
A mini Kero sat on the brim of the bag and watched the horizon for any signs of the bubbly teenagers.  
  
"Well, I guess this is better than staying at home in those hot, stuffy bedrooms....hey is that them? Yes, yes it is. Good about time. Sakura, Sakura, opps...I'd better get back in the bag," Kero mummbled, as he jumped back into the bag.  
  
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~  
  
The group of tired boys slowly lowered the heavy chest down onto the sand and plopped down beside it.  
  
"Finally, it's about time we got back," Eriol said with a sigh.  
  
"Yeah, I'm knocked out," Jackson said openly.  
  
"But you guys did a great job," admitted Chelsea as she pecked Jackson on the cheek.  
  
"Mmmm.. but I'm going to get an ice cream or something cool to eat at the tuck shop. Do any of you guys wanna come?" Nikki asked, grabbing her wallet.  
  
"Sure, I'll come Nik," Melin said, slipping on tee shirt and grabbing her wallet as well.  
  
"Ok Melin. We'll see you guys soon alright?" Nikki called out as the two of them raced across the hot sand in search of the nearest tuck shop.  
  
"Hey, wait up you guys, I wanna come too," Zachary yelled as he followed the speeding girls.  
  
"Well, I guess that makes three of them," Rita sighed.  
  
"I don't know why he left in such a hurry. Zachary forgot his wallet," Chelsea remarked.  
  
The rest of the crew laughed at the stupidity of their fellow classmate.  
  
"Hey, what about the chest? Are we gonna open it?" C.J asked.  
  
"Oh yeah, we were going to weren't we?" Maddison said as she remembered.  
  
"I don't feel like doing it," Li quietly admitted.  
  
"But why Li?" Rita asked him.  
  
"Oh I don't know. I guess I just wanna have a break," he said looking strangely at Sakura, "you know, a good, long, hard rest."  
  
Sakura looked strangely back at Li then suddenly caught on,  
  
"Yes, I think that I need a break as well. A little time to myself to unwind."  
  
And with that, she walked off in the direction they had just came. Li followed her.  
  
The boys seemed puzzled at Li and Sakura's sudden actions, but the girls started smiling and were amazed at how many times they could keep this up.  
  
"Well, if they won't then we wi.." Jackson was cut off by a tall lanky man peering over their shoulders.  
  
"Well, hello there. What have you got there?" he asked.  
  
"Oh just a little something," Maddison replied sweetly.  
  
"Well, do you mind if I have a look?" he asked them calmly.  
  
Maddison, Eriol, Chelsea, Jackson, Kirsten, Ricky, Rita and C.J looked at each other then shrugged like saying that they had no choice.  
  
"Of course you can. Although I doubt you'd find it very interesting," Kirsten admitted, it her most grown up voice.  
  
The man smiled back at her and lifted the beach towel of the groups treasure.  
  
"Oh my," he said gasping.  
  
"What is it?" Eriol asked.  
  
"This chest. It is the chest of Cootamundra, I can't believe it. Where did you find it?" he questioned the group of teenagers.  
  
"Well, four of our friends found it while out scuba diving. But, what is the chest of Cootamundra?" C.J said.  
  
"Well, it all started about 500 years ago...."  
  
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~  
  
"Hey Li," Sakura said pulling on Li's arm.  
  
"What is it Sakura?" Li asked his little cherry blossom. She smiled sweetly at him, and again tugged at his arm, but this time, pulling her body close to his.  
  
"I was kinda thinking that we could, I don't know," she smiled sultery at him, "finish what we started. What the other guys interrupted.." she finished her sentance with a hot kiss on Li's lips.  
  
"Well Li. Are you up to it?" she asked sweetly, arching her eyebrow. She brought her lips back to his, but this time he was ready for her. He quickly placed his hands on her waist and pulled her into him, immediately crushing their lips together. Sakura didn't pull away from Li, although she was greatly shocked by his actions. She instead closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Li enjoyed their moment of bonding. He ran his hands down Sakura's sides and smiled to himself when he felt her shudder under his touch. He whispered against her kiss,  
  
"I'm ready. But the question really is, are you?" He then crushed his lips against hers once again.  
  
Eventually, it was both of them who slowly broke the kiss. They both took deep breaths as they gazed into each others eyes.  
  
"I love you Sakura," Li whispered into Sakura's ear, "forever." He then began nibbling the ticklish area behind her ear.  
  
She giggled quietly and returned his pledge,  
  
"I'll love you forever as well, my Little Wolf," and with that, she ran her hands down from his neck then onto his chest. She pushed him away slightly, so he would be able to look her in the face. He looked puzzled at first, but that was soon forgotten when she slowly kissed him on the nose.  
  
The couple continued to stroll down the beach, hand in hand...  
  
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~  
  
"One coke, hotdog and drumstick, coming up," the bikini clad waitress smiled and turned away to get the food.  
  
"Gee, it's about time. I can't believe you forgot your wallet, Zachary," Nikki said with a sigh.  
  
"Yeah, and now Nik and I have to shout you a hotdog," Melin added.  
  
"Don't worry guys, I'll pay you back," Zachary quickly announced.  
  
"Here you go kids. Enjoy!" the waitress handed them therir food and turned to serve another costomer.  
  
"Well, you'd better Zachary, because I'm not gonna.....opps," Melin cried out as she spun around with her coke, and bummed into a lifeguard, causing it to spill all over him.  
  
"Opps...I'm sorry," Melin gasped as she helped the patroler pick up the bag he dropped.  
  
"No, it's cool, don't worry about it," the guard stared long and hard at Melin before speaking up again. "Oh, how stupid of me, my names Joshua." He held out his hand to her, "and you are?"  
  
"M-Melin," she stuttered as she shook his hand. The handsome lifeguard smiled at her reaction to him. Zachary and Nikki simply stood there smirking, ramming Melin's facial expression into their memory banks so they could torment her later. But their 'gazing' was interrupted by Joshua's voice.  
  
"So Melin, are you doing anything at the moment? I mean, apart from spilling coke over everyone?" Josh laughed as Melin blushed and looked away from him.  
  
"Ummm...no, not really. Why?" She turned her attention back to Josh after she was sure that the dark pink that was covering her face was gone.  
  
"Well, I was kinda thinking that...I don't know, maybe you'd like to hang out or something?" He asked confidently as Melin, Nikki and Zachary gasped at his little proposal. Melin looked over at her friends, who smiled back wildly and gave her a 'go-for-it' look.  
  
"Sure," Melin replied, trying to sound casual. "That would be cool."  
  
"Great," Josh answered back, with what seemed to be a sigh of relief. "C'mon, I'll buy you another coke and we'll go out...somewhere. How does crusing in my speed boat take your fancy?"  
  
"Sound great," Melin answered back as the couple head back over toward the refreshment stand, leaving a very bewildered Nikki and Zachary to find their way back through the crowd...  
  
TO BE CONTINUED...(I promise!)  
  
*Does anyone have any ideas for the next chapter? If you do, I would love to hear them...* 


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